GRAMMY: BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM [1991]
[high resolution scan]
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Planet Drum |
| Produced by Mickey Hart | |
| Released on September 27, 1991 | |
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US CHART POSITION #1 [TOP WORLD MUSIC] . . . GRAMMY: BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM [1991] | |
| Find it at GEMM | |
| RCD 10206 cover [high resolution scan] |
M ickey Hart and a drum circle of friends that most would envy: Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Babatunde Olatunji, Zakir Hussain, etc. Planet Drum actually earned Hart and company a Grammy for Best World Music Album, though where such things are concerned it’s a small world after all. Using percussion instruments from around the world as well as voice, this is an interesting departure from the average. I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, since uber-explorer Brian Eno arrived here nearly a decade earlier on works like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Possible Musics, but Planet Drum is an equally exotic postcard from the edge. Some of the tracks are a little dry, which you might expect from a percussion-only album, but the stretch of music from “The Hunt” to “Evening Samba” delivers plenty of surprises. There are swinging, shifting grooves, water sounds, muffled voices, primitive and ethereal, native spirits and sexy shadows. Amazingly, no two tracks sound alike, the circle expanding, contracting and changing to include different players and different instruments. Here, Hart’s planet is more of a united nation representing African, Asian, North and South American styles into a new rhythmic language. Among the ancillary Dead discs, I buy Jerry Garcia’s stuff for the same reason a dog sits under the table during dinnertime. I buy Mickey Hart’s music to expand my world. (I don’t know why I buy Bob Weir’s records.) Planet Drum is definitely a different destination than the Dead, but I’d recommend it to rhythmagicians in a Hart beat.
TRACK LISTING
CREDITS
MICKEY HART -- bass drum, snare drum, hoop drum, tambourine, triangles, "Beam," vocals, bombo indio with split bamboo, drum set, body percussion, rain stick, shakers, Earth drum, clackers, duggi tarang, bones, balafon, bell, gourds
SIKIRU ADEPOJU -- cowbell, duggi tarang, dundun, bell, gudugudu, djembe, grand dumbec, co-producer
ZAKIR HUSSAIN -- udu drum, balafon, tabla, madal, dholak, naal, bells, taya, dundun, shaker, duggi tarang, conch shell, co-producer
AIRTO MOREIRA -- tamanco, bird calls, whistles, conch shell, claps, chimes, vocals, caxixi, rattles, yelling, chinese cymbal-throwing, snare drum, metal spring, toms, mexican donkey jaws, cowbell, cuica, flute, djembe, shakers, slit gongs, berimbau, cymbals, wood blocks, metal percussion, bass drum, snare drum, tambourine, bamboo with brushes, nose flute, body percussion, co-producer
BABATUNDE OLATUNJI -- djembe, congas, shekere, vocals, ashiko, ngoma, body percussion, shaker, bell, clapping, co-producer
FLORA PURIM -- vocals, shaker, wind chimes, seagulls, co-producer
T.H. "VIKKU" VINAYAKRAM -- ghatam, Jew's harp, co-producer
Molonga Casquelord -- vocals (12)
Frank Colon -- shekere (4)
Giovanni Hidalgo -- shekere, congas, bata
Bruce Langhorne -- vocals and body percussion (5)
Caryl Ohrbach -- shaker (4)
Gordy Ryan -- vocals and body percussion (5)
Jeff Sterling -- udu drum (13), recording and mixdown engineer
Tom Flye -- recording and mixdown engineer
Nancy Nimoy -- cover illustration
Howard Jackson/TRIAD -- art direction
Kenneth J. Becker, John Werner -- photos
Steve Jurgensmeyer -- package design
| REGION | RELEASE DATE | LABEL | MEDIA | ID NUMBER | FEATURES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | September 27, 1991 | Rykodisc | CD/CS | RCD-10206/RACS-0206 | |
| US | 1994 | Rykodisc | CD | RYK-80206 | gold disc |
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